Chinese Ambassador to Jamaica Chen Jinghua has given his commitment to provide support to the Ministry of Education in the form of computer technology. Ambassador Chen made the commitment on Monday, during a courtesy call at the Chinese Mission by Minister of Education Andrew Holness.

The commitment was made after Minister Holness expressed his vision of have a real time national schools database to more efficiently manage the school system.

Available scholarships

The Chinese Ambassador also raised the issue of available scholarships for qualified Jamaicans to study in China. He, however, noted that there has not been great interest among Jamaica students recently.

Minister Holness said he would ensure that the scholarships are utilised.

"I personally commit to find qualified persons to ensure that those scholarships are taken up," he said. "Otherwise we would be wasting opportunities of resources."

Ambassador Chen also pointed out that at least 30 million Yuan (US$4 million) in grant aid is available from the Chinese government for economic and technical development in Jamaica. He suggested that some of this amount could be committed to the area of education. Minister Holness has assured that this will be examined as a matter of urgency.

Deepen cooperation

During their discussions, Minister Holness and Ambassador Chen both expressed a wish to further deepen cooperation between the two states in the areas of education and culture. Ambassador Chen said educational cooperation between both countries was a vehicle that could be used to strengthen trade ties as "the youth of today will be the ones driving the process of continued linkages in the future".